Every time I press the shutter button, I feel a responsibility to what I capture. That overdeveloped sense of accountability is more evident when I shoot people.

I choose to blur them. Or capture them out of focus. I applaud their importance without allowing them identity.

I sometimes have to ask myself the question whether I do this to disassociate. Or could it be that I don’t particularly like what they project back at me, about myself.

Do I forget, after I press the shutter, develop the image and applaud my brilliance , the faces that I capture?

Do I think about where these unwilling subjects came from? What experience shaped them the most? Their dreams. Their passions. Their fear.

Do I contemplate their future? On what path they are finding themselves on? Their aspirations. Their struggles.

Do I imagine their expectations of pleasure? The twinkling of failure?

Do I celebrate their existence?

Do I see myself in them?

Are we being shaped by our past? Or are we being shaped by our future?

Are we the end result of all the things we’ve seen?

All the things we’ve done?

The places we’ve been?

The people we’ve had to leave behind?

All that’s happened in your life?

Is it those things that brings the light and darkness to the blank screen?

Anthony Bourdain